Contrasting Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) & Myers Industries (NYSE:MYE)

Myers Industries (NYSE:MYE) and Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) are both materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.8% of Myers Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.4% of Smurfit Westrock shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Myers Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Smurfit Westrock shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Myers Industries and Smurfit Westrock, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Myers Industries	0	2	1	0	2.33
Smurfit Westrock	0	2	11	0	2.85

Myers Industries presently has a consensus target price of $37.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.53%. Smurfit Westrock has a consensus target price of $57.69, indicating a potential upside of 28.33%. Given Smurfit Westrock’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Smurfit Westrock is more favorable than Myers Industries.

Risk and Volatility

Myers Industries has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smurfit Westrock has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Myers Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Smurfit Westrock pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Myers Industries pays out 55.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Smurfit Westrock pays out 191.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Myers Industries and Smurfit Westrock”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Myers Industries	$844.62 million	1.38	$34.93 million	$0.97	31.91
Smurfit Westrock	$31.33 billion	0.75	$699.00 million	$0.94	47.83

Smurfit Westrock has higher revenue and earnings than Myers Industries. Myers Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Smurfit Westrock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Myers Industries and Smurfit Westrock’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Myers Industries	4.86%	19.86%	6.88%
Smurfit Westrock	1.59%	4.60%	1.85%

About Myers Industries

Myers Industries, Inc. engages in distribution of tire service supplies in Ohio. It operates through two segments, The Material Handling and Distribution. The Material Handling segment offers pallets, small parts bins, bulk shipping containers, and OEM parts, as well as storage and organization, and custom plastic products; and injection molded, rotationally molded or blow molded products, consumer fuel containers and tanks for water, fuel, and waste handling. It serves industrial manufacturing, food processing, retail/wholesale products distribution, agriculture, automotive, recreational and marine vehicles, healthcare, appliance, bakery, electronics, textiles, consumer markets, and other markets under Akro-Mils, Jamco, Buckhorn, Ameri-Kart, Scepter, Elkhart Plastics, Trilogy Plastics, and Signature Systems brands directly to end-users, as well as through distributors. The Distribution segment engages in the distribution of tools, equipment, and supplies for tire, wheel, and under-vehicle service on passenger, heavy truck, and off-road vehicles; and manufacture and sale of tire repair materials and custom rubber products, as well as reflective highway marking tapes under the Myers Tire Supply, Myers Tire Supply International, Tuffy Manufacturing, Mohawk Rubber Sales, Patch Rubber Company, Elrick, Fleetline, MTS, Seymoure, Advance Traffic Markings, and MXP brands. This segment serves retail and truck tire dealers, commercial auto and truck fleets, auto dealers, general service and repair centers, tire re-treaders, truck stop operations, and government agencies. Myers Industries, Inc. was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.

About Smurfit Westrock

Smurfit Westrock Plc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells containerboard, corrugated containers, and other paper-based packaging products in Ireland and internationally. The company produces containerboard that it converts into corrugated containers or sells to third parties, as well as produces other types of paper, such as consumer packaging board, sack paper, graphic paper, solid board and graphic board, and other paper-based packaging products, such as consumer packaging, solid board packaging, paper sacks, and other packaging products, including bag-in-box. It also produces linerboard and corrugated medium, paperboard, and non-packaging grades of paper, as well as converted products, such as folding cartons and corrugated boxes, and other products; recycled paper-based packaging products; and packaging machinery. The company primarily serves food and beverage, e-commerce, retail, consumer goods, industrial, and foodservice markets. Smurfit Westrock Plc was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.